Friday, June 5, 2009

"Everything about the new album from Eleventh He Reaches London reeks of meticulous attention to detail, from the stunning cover art by Seldon Hunt (who has previously provided artwork for the likes of Neurosis and Earth) to the dense production courtesy of local sound guru Al Smith. ‘Hollow Be My Name’ was apparently recorded and mixed over a long period of time, rather than the get-in-get-out rush job typical of many local releases, and it really shows. This is an album that has been carefully crafted and reveals a band who are not only creatively rich but also clearly very ambitious.

The evolution from their debut release ‘The Good Fight for Harmony’ is massive. They traverse a wholly unique landscape that is musically modern and progressive yet thematically harkens back to another time, namely the early years of Australia’s invasion by the English. The impossibly bleak and totally fascinating lyrics detail imperial oppression and colonial hardship against an unforgiving backdrop of barren earth. The language and folk songs of the time are blended with a modern vocabulary to create a hyper-reality of old world desolation that somewhat strangely brings to mind the world of television’s Deadwood, albeit with a very Australian bent.

Thankfully, the music is every bit the match to the lyrics, having expanded exponentially from their powerful but relatively straightforward early hardcore/metal style. Enormous walls of noise give way to delicate melodic passages, distorted guitar gives way to banjo picking – this really is a strange, beautiful beast to behold. Post-hardcore? Art-metal? Folk-metal??

Forget trying to pigeonhole ‘Hollow Be My Name’ and instead celebrate its eccentric, evocative originality. Eleventh He Reaches London stand among a select few heavy bands trying to do something really different – and fewerstill who actually pull it off.